Our Staff
Our staff is comprised of dedicated and licensed professionals with the experience to answer all your questions regarding our services. Please feel free to contact any of our staff members at any time.
Eugene Wagner
Funeral Director
Eugene and his wife, Lois, are natives of Detroit and were high school sweethearts. Of their five children, two have become the third generation in funeral service. Their older son, Kevin, like his father and his grandfather, went into business for himself the day he received his funeral director license, and like his father, started his career as an embalming specialist. Kevin and his family now own a funeral home in Roscommon, Michigan. Middle child, Elizabeth Findlay and her family, have now joined Eugene and Lois in the day to day operation of the Cassopolis and Three Oaks funeral homes, as well as providing additional staffing for Halbritter Wickens Funeral Services in Niles.
The Wagners have continued to be active in church and civic
matters, Eugene being elected to the Cassopolis Village Council, the Cass Area
Utility Authority, the Cass County Economic Development Corporation, and the
Cassopolis/Vandalia Chamber of Commerce, where he continues to serve as a board
member. He is also secretary/treasurer
of Stone Lake Woods in Cassopolis, Section 202 federally subsidized senior
citizen apartments.
A graduate of Wayne State University School of Mortuary Science in Detroit, Wagner received his fifty-year licensee recognition in 2023. While furthering his formal education he had also attained his Funeral Director and Embalmer licenses in Wisconsin and Indiana.
A dedicated student of thanatology and a passionate advocate for healthy responses for grief and mourning, Eugene has provided presentations at national, state and local levels.
Eugene is a charter member of the Michigan Embalmers Society, a lifetime member of the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice holding the title of Certified Funeral Service Practitioner. He has also earned the designation from the National Funeral Directors Association as a Certified Crematory Operator, Certified Preneed Counselor, and Certified Arrangement Counselor. He was a founding member and past president of the Independent Funeral Directors of Indiana and continues to be a member of the Indiana Funeral Directors Association.
In 2017, he became the third funeral director from Cassopolis to serve as President the Michigan Funeral Directors Association, the oldest association of funeral professionals, from which he has earned the designation of Certified Michigan Funeral Practitioner. He serves on the board of the Michigan Mortuary Science Foundation and will become president in 2026.
A rostered clergy (Emeritus) in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, he continues to serve in various capacities in churches in Michigan and Indiana.
Elizabeth Wagner Findlay
Funeral Director
Elizabeth Wagner Findlay is the middle child of Eugene and Lois Wagner. Always Elizabeth to her parents, Ellie to her husband, Michael, sometimes Beth, but never, ever Liz, and, of course, Mom to her children. She was born in Milwaukee, grew up in Indiana and Alabama (with a brief stay with her older sister in Italy during junior high), back to Indiana, and now she and her family have joined her parents in Michigan.
Elizabeth knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in funeral service. She and her brother, Kevin, also a licensed funeral director and owner of his own funeral home in Roscommon, Michigan, are the third generation of the Wagner Family to serve as funeral directors.
Her grandfather, Loren A. Wagner, at the time the youngest man in Michigan to receive both funeral director and embalmer licenses, began his career in his native Detroit, Michigan. Displaying the same independence as her grandfather, Elizabeth is already beginning to assume the duties of chief operating officer of the family's two funeral homes and Halbritter Wickens Funeral Services in Niles. She also serves as a Certified Clinical Embalming Preceptor for several area schools of Mortuary Science and Funeral Service.
Licensed in both Michigan and Indiana, she brings with her a strong sense of service and a keen awareness of meeting the needs of families in our care. Her ability to organize almost anything (including her father) helps keep our focus where it belongs on serving each family.
Arvid Northrop
Funeral Director
Arvid has served as a licensed funeral director across the State of Michigan for over twenty years and had previously co-owned a funeral home in Howell, Michigan. Just as importantly, throughout those years he spent time in advanced funeral planning and helping people tell their story.
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